St. Croix Hastings Advice Needed

[ylomnstr]

So I started a thread in January about my St. Croix Hastings having a lazy flame. This was my 3rd year with it. I run about 3 tons of pellets through it each year. Year 1 and 2 went great. Year 3 came and things started getting strange. I had a lazy flame issue. To be honest, the first 2 years, I never cleaned the pipe. I only did maintenance on the stove. So with all your suggestions, I figured I had a clog. I cleaned the exhaust and the stove as well as I could. While things improved, something is still not right. I get a lot of ash clumps. Before these issues, I was able to go a week without having to worry about cleaning the ashes. Now after a day, I have a lot of build up. See the old topic here: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/67564/P0/

So now I want to have a pro come check it out. I think it may have to do with my exhaust. I have a vertical exhaust, and when the stove fires up, I can smell the burning at first. I probably have a leak or a seal that is not tight. I assume that could cause the bad burn issues? I'm just afraid to have a "pro" come, spend a couple of hundred, and then have the same issues. Especially if they come now, I won't really be able to test it as I don't want to burn the stove while it's 85 degrees out. So then come the winter, if I have issues again right off the bat, and I call the pro, they may use the excuse that the cleaning was so long ago and that I'd have to pay again if I still had issues.

Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Rob

 

[DexterDay]

A leak in your exhaust after the Combustion Blower will have ZERO effect on your burn. It will only let CO leak into your home (CO Kills). A leak before the combustion blower will reduce the air coming through the holes in your burn pot. Thereby giving a terrible burn (Clumping,Clinker, Build-up). If you have a leak. It is before it hits your burn-pot (Can still have one after the Exhaust blower, but will do nothing for burn), A Gasket leaking on your Door or Ash pan could be the culprit. Or it could be a Combustion blower that is getting "Weak". Does your Combustion Motor have "Oil Ports"? Have you oiled them lately? Has the Combustion motor ever been pulled? 2-3 years is a long time to go with a Deep Clean.

You say you cleaned your flue "As well as I could". Did you clean the entire exhaust path? From the Burnpot to the Combustion blower must be clean. All ash traps and paths. Get a vacuum and some long thin brushes and attack the stove. Or the best way that many do it is using The "Leaf-blower trick" along with an Air hose. Spray every nook and cranny with the air line and the Leaf-blower sucks it right out. I painted the inside of my stove and smelled No Fumes of paint because of the massive amounts of Air that the Leaf-blower moves.

I suggest a "Deep Cleaning". If you had it for almost 3 years before cleaning the flue. I am guessing that there is a "Plug" INSIDE of your stove. Some of these passages for air and ash can be quite small. 2-3 years and 5-8 tons will clog the best of stoves out there..

Here is a Thread I started a couple weeks back. Shows everything I did to clean mine. This should be done once a year (At least do the flue every ton). Clean and Lube everything... Hope you get it figured out. Long brushes a some time. Took about 12 hours, over the course of 3 days to get mine done. It doesn't have to be as detailed (painting, pulling stove from wall, etc) But I like to get it all. When done, give it all a coat of "Pam" Cooking Spray and it will be good to go till next year.


https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/75103/

 

[ylomnstr]

Thanks. I did replace the door gasket, but have not done the ash pan as I'm not quite sure how that one goes on. It's much thinner. It looks very healthy though. I'm not sure about oil ports for the combustion motor. This is what I'm afraid of by having a "pro" come and check things out. I have a feeling they won't check half of this stuff and I'll end up no better than I was before they came.

I'll take the stove apart now that I don't need to run it and give it a deep clean myself. I did pull the combustion motor and cleaned under that as there was a lot of ash. When I saw that, I figured I had the problem solved, and like I said, it did do better, but something still wasnt quite right.

 

[heat seeker]

I don't know if it's made like the Afton Bay freestanding stove, but if it is, have you cleaned the ash traps? On the Afton, there are three small doors to remove to clean the traps. The combustion air must travel through those traps, and if they are clogged, you'll get a poor flame. As DexterDay says, time for a deep cleaning, both in the stove and the piping.

 

[MSmith66]

So I started a thread in January about my St. Croix Hastings having a lazy flame. This was my 3rd year with it. I run about 3 tons of pellets through it each year. Year 1 and 2 went great. Year 3 came and things started getting strange. I had a lazy flame issue. To be honest, the first 2 years, I never cleaned the pipe. I only did maintenance on the stove. So with all your suggestions, I figured I had a clog. I cleaned the exhaust and the stove as well as I could. While things improved, something is still not right. I get a lot of ash clumps. Before these issues, I was able to go a week without having to worry about cleaning the ashes. Now after a day, I have a lot of build up. See the old topic here: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/67564/P0/

So now I want to have a pro come check it out. I think it may have to do with my exhaust. I have a vertical exhaust, and when the stove fires up, I can smell the burning at first. I probably have a leak or a seal that is not tight. I assume that could cause the bad burn issues? I'm just afraid to have a "pro" come, spend a couple of hundred, and then have the same issues. Especially if they come now, I won't really be able to test it as I don't want to burn the stove while it's 85 degrees out. So then come the winter, if I have issues again right off the bat, and I call the pro, they may use the excuse that the cleaning was so long ago and that I'd have to pay again if I still had issues.

Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Rob

A couple of yrs ago, I posted a diagram of the St.Criox stoves showing an inner wall behind the burn pot. That is where the stove in plugged. I have come across many St.Criox stoves and have this problem in almost all of them. One Gentleman burned 1ton of pellets and plugged the stove up because he was burning soft wood(more ash). If you can not find this thread, give me a call. I will walk you through it. 315.651.0204
Thank you.

 

[smwilliamson]

So I started a thread in January about my St. Croix Hastings having a lazy flame. This was my 3rd year with it. I run about 3 tons of pellets through it each year. Year 1 and 2 went great. Year 3 came and things started getting strange. I had a lazy flame issue. To be honest, the first 2 years, I never cleaned the pipe. I only did maintenance on the stove. So with all your suggestions, I figured I had a clog. I cleaned the exhaust and the stove as well as I could. While things improved, something is still not right. I get a lot of ash clumps. Before these issues, I was able to go a week without having to worry about cleaning the ashes. Now after a day, I have a lot of build up. See the old topic here: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/67564/P0/

So now I want to have a pro come check it out. I think it may have to do with my exhaust. I have a vertical exhaust, and when the stove fires up, I can smell the burning at first. I probably have a leak or a seal that is not tight. I assume that could cause the bad burn issues? I'm just afraid to have a "pro" come, spend a couple of hundred, and then have the same issues. Especially if they come now, I won't really be able to test it as I don't want to burn the stove while it's 85 degrees out. So then come the winter, if I have issues again right off the bat, and I call the pro, they may use the excuse that the cleaning was so long ago and that I'd have to pay again if I still had issues.

Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Rob

A couple of yrs ago, I posted a diagram of the St.Criox stoves showing an inner wall behind the burn pot. That is where the stove in plugged. I have come across many St.Criox stoves and have this problem in almost all of them. One Gentleman burned 1ton of pellets and plugged the stove up because he was burning soft wood(more ash). If you can not find this thread, give me a call. I will walk you through it. 315.651.0204
Thank you.

Correction, by nature, softwood pellets generally produce less ash. This is not to say that a hardwood like Cubex or Northerns could not have a lower ash content than say Potomac. It has a lot to do with the actual feedstock and how it is cared for as well as the raw material going in.

The St. Croix blues (flashing number 2 error) has to do with how the exhaust is routed through the stove and condensing of the ash within the the system from the rear of the refractory to the exhaust motor itself. At times, realigning the impeller blade lower on the shaft may solve the draw issue and give the user more tolerance to ash build up between the impeller and the motor housing.

I find that blowing the ash from the system with a compressor solves all of these problems but it is important to not to let ash accumulate offer several seasons as the ash compacts into areas that can be hard to fully clean. Obviously fuel choice in a St. Croix is paramount.

One thing that bugs me about St. Croix is that from their beginnings, the stove has been a corn burner by design. Adaptations have been made to allow it to efficiently burn wood pellets but adaptations never seem to be as great as specific designs IMHO.

 

[heat seeker]

You could take a small mirror and look up behind the wall, looking into the two ash traps on either side of the burn pot. Using a flashlight, you can get a good idea of what's up there. I did this with my Afton Bay (bought used), and there was very little up there, just a thin layer stuck to the walls. A light shone at the rear of the heat exchanger up top should be visible at the bottom, looking into a mirror.

Behind the brick, next to the pellet chute, there are two holes, about ¼" in diameter. The idea is to take a small plumber's snake, cut the large end off, and put the snake in each hole. Attach a drill to the snake, and let it whip around back there, and it's supposed to knock the crud loose. I haven't done that, but it seems like it would work.

On my Afton Bay, there is a third ash trap door behind the ash pan, yours may have one.

I did find a significant amount of whitish ash at the rear of the heat exchanger, behind where the tube scraper usually sits. It was blocking some combustion airflow. I used a hacksaw blade to reach up there and knock it loose.

You may have plate that sits above the flame area, that diverts the hot gasses to the front of the exchanger. That is removable (on my Afton Bay), and gives access to clean up there.

I find the Afton is easy to clean, and running it on high for a while every day, as the manual suggests, is helpful.


P.S.
If your Hastings has a cleanout under the burn pot, make sure it is completely closed. If it's not, air bleeds by the burn pot, and you get a lazy flame, too.

 

[ylomnstr]

Just wanted to update everyone. A few months ago I had my dealer come out, and he really couldn't find much wrong. We did however, find that the rod that moves the versagrate plate back and forth had disconnected from the motor, so it wasn't turning. I assume this could be why I was getting so much build up. I also noticed that the cam that turns the motor is full of high temp grease that I've put on there in the past, and it seems that the grease is now hard. any ideas how I can get that off and what I should be using to lubricate it? I used the high temp copper anti-seize lubricant as everyone on here told me to use, but perhaps I used too much? Strange that it got hard.